Is the MPC X getting the Force "Arranger Mode"?

Oof. Thats disappointing to say the least. I'm not a force user, but still, this is a flop on akais part that shouldnt be forgotten in the future...

MPC-Tutor wrote:I think the Force will get this update, but I'm concerned it will be another MPC5000 2.0 type of thing - i.e. after releasing the update they promptly drew a line under the development, not even a quick 2.0.1 bug fix update. I just get the horrible feeling the Force is destined for quiet discontinuation. But I hope not, it's a great concept, just needs some finishing touches.

Akai just confirmed there's no more public beta planned on the Force

Post

But for me, laying off the 'Akai Force Lead Product Specialist', Nick Trakakis, has been the biggest concern. Are they actively promoting the Force at all these days, other than dropping the price by 30%? It's been around a year since they put out any promotional content (other than a short 3.0.4 Ableton Control vid 5 months ago).

Regarding losing Nick, sure - that's a concern. But the post above does not suggest there will no longer be any Force updates period - it just states that they no longer will do public betas (and as we've learned on the MPC side of this, that's been their approach with the MPC firmware/software updates as well - yet they didn't even make an official announcement). At least Force testers got that response.. LOL

EnochLight wrote:Regarding losing Nick, sure - that's a concern. But the post above does not suggest there will no longer be any Force updates period - it just states that they no longer will do public betas

Yes, I posted that just to show that the public beta has been officially suspended, I appreciate that Akai will still no doubt put out at least one more update. But with all the other stuff (price drop, nick, significantly delayed arranger, relative lack of user activity on social media, zero ongoing marketing effort from Akai ) it doesn't paint a particularly rosey future for the Force.

And again, I think that's a shame, I really like it but it irks me to think it may have no future. It's a bit like watching a box set on Netflix when you already know the show got dropped after the second season; it's kind of always there in the back of your mind that it will never probably come to a proper conclusion and it begins to spoil the enjoyment.

Nick not being part of the team anymore is highly disheartening. I've been watching sweetwater, thoman and zzounds for "out of stock/more on the way" notices to see if there is any indication that it's being discontinued.

I received an email today from zzounds randomly saying "the force is with you" with it showing the force for sale. Are they trying to get rid of inventory ??

MPC-Tutor wrote:It's a bit like watching a box set on Netflix when you already know the show got dropped after the second season; it's kind of always there in the back of your mind that it will never probably come to a proper conclusion and it begins to spoil the enjoyment.

I literally just binge watched Space Force and I am thinking that exact thing right now, and it was only 1 season.

EnochLight wrote:

MPC-Tutor wrote:It's a bit like watching a box set on Netflix when you already know the show got dropped after the second season; it's kind of always there in the back of your mind that it will never probably come to a proper conclusion and it begins to spoil the enjoyment.

I literally just binge watched Space Force and I am thinking that exact thing right now, and it was only 1 season.

Space Force is officially epic.

We need this 'Arranger Mode' to hit the MPC, lets hope that this will happen in 3.0
It's what we've been asking for since day one..

It's interesting that so many people keep referencing "patience" when the 2.8 multi mode took over three years. I'd say that is a great display of patience.

Anyways, I sincerely hope that Akai will implement 1-to-1 tracks/arranger mode. This could/would/should mean that we'll also gain a tempo track, which in my opinion is an important but missing musical tool. Many musical arrangements were born out of tempo variations. Perhaps we will also see a decent way of editing time signatures on at least a bar/measure scale (although arbitrary time signatures would be better).

Elektrobolt wrote:Anyways, I sincerely hope that Akai will implement 1-to-1 tracks/arranger mode. This could/would/should mean that we'll also gain a tempo track, which in my opinion is an important but missing musical tool. Many musical arrangements were born out of tempo variations. Perhaps we will also see a decent way of editing time signatures on at least a bar/measure scale (although arbitrary time signatures would be better).

Yes, truly baffling that we can't vary tempo within a sequence, seems like just one of those basic requirements of a sequencer, as is the ability to change time signature. Legacy MPCs of course had these features.

I submitted an official feature request for tempo change events back when I was a proper MPC beta tester, 7 years ago...

Elektrobolt wrote:It's interesting that so many people keep referencing "patience" when the 2.8 multi mode took over three years. I'd say that is a great display of patience.

Anyways, I sincerely hope that Akai will implement 1-to-1 tracks/arranger mode. This could/would/should mean that we'll also gain a tempo track, which in my opinion is an important but missing musical tool. Many musical arrangements were born out of tempo variations. Perhaps we will also see a decent way of editing time signatures on at least a bar/measure scale (although arbitrary time signatures would be better).

It's interesting that hardly anybody can imagine or emphatize the time needed for coding, testing, bugs, etc.

bees80 wrote:It's interesting that hardly anybody can imagine or emphatize the time needed for coding, testing, bugs, etc.

I agree, Coding does take a long time and it's not easy work.


If more people used the machine to make music, instead of trying to find something wrong with it. Things would be a lot easier. How many features does a machine really need? How many of these missing features stops a person from making music?

For myself, if the machine can't do what I need it to do, If I can't find a work around, or I find gear that does it. I'll get rid of the machine and don't look back. The end goal is the music, nothing is more important than that.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

bees80 wrote:It's interesting that hardly anybody can imagine or emphatize the time needed for coding, testing, bugs, etc.

I agree, Coding does take a long time and it's not easy work.


If more people used the machine to make music, instead of trying to find something wrong with it. Things would be a lot easier. How many features does a machine really need? How many of these missing features stops a person from making music?

For myself, if the machine can't do what I need it to do, If I can't find a work around, or I find gear that does it. I'll get rid of the machine and don't look back. The end goal is the music, nothing is more important than that.

100%.

The interesting thing is that it seems that a lot of people just buy something without even actually knowing what it can do or how it works. In my head this is just silly.. But i don't have a budget of thousands of euro's. I have to be precise and aware of what i buy.

CharlesRandolph wrote:
If more people used the machine to make music, instead of trying to find something wrong with it. Things would be a lot easier. How many features does a machine really need? How many of these missing features stops a person from making music?

For myself, if the machine can't do what I need it to do, If I can't find a work around, or I find gear that does it. I'll get rid of the machine and don't look back. The end goal is the music, nothing is more important than that.

Damn!!!! This Should Go Down In The Hall Of Fame Of Quotes!!!!

Took the words right outta my mouth.

CharlesRandolph wrote:

bees80 wrote:
If more people used the machine to make music, instead of trying to find something wrong with it. Things would be a lot easier. How many features does a machine really need? How many of these missing features stops a person from making music?

For myself, if the machine can't do what I need it to do, If I can't find a work around, or I find gear that does it. I'll get rid of the machine and don't look back. The end goal is the music, nothing is more important than that.

+1 thumbs up

The unique aspect to the Force situation is that the arranger was promised by Akai for March 2019 so a lot of people bought it assuming it was capable of recording arrangements. 15 months later and it's still not here. In the meantime the price has dropped 30%. The Ableton Live integration also took a long time to implement, but this was presented months previously at NAMM 2019 as pretty much 'good to go', Musictech even did a review at the time claiming it was one of the top 10 Ableton Live controllers, even though that feature didn't exist yet.

So yes, buyer beware, don't buy something based on promised features, but I do think it's understandable that Force users who jumped on board after NAMM 2019 are peeved at how the Force has never quite lived up to the promised functionality, and IMO can be afforded a bit of a moan about it. This isn't the same as MPC users complaining about lack of disk streaming etc, these features were never promised in the first place.